Discovery News: Space Diary

Hello, World

We are so accustomed to portrayals of reality from artists and computer technology that the startle-factor provoked by this image may have been muted. That’s a STAR, you’re looking at, very similar to our sun, which of course we cannot see from the perspective in the picture, and off in the upper left, that’s a PLANET, albeit a big one, locked in orbit much the same way Earth and the sister planets of the our solar system circle our mother star.

Scientists and engineers are developing tools to more finely dissect light streaming in from all over the universe in hopes, I mean, hard work, of finding out if Earth alone bears life, of the intelligent variety or otherwise.

We hear lots about the Hubble Space Telescope, from NASA, scientists and journalists, myself included, but it’s important to remember that the war against ignorance is being fought on many fronts. This image, which is believed to be the first picture of planet around a sun-like star, was taken by one of the Gemini telescopes on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. The star is 1RXS J160929.1-210524, located about 500 light years from Earth.

The companion planet is about eight times bigger than Jupiter and located about 330 times farther away from star than Earth is from the sun. (The press release about the discovery notes that the most distant planet in our solar system, Neptune, orbits the sun about 30 times the Earth-sun distance.)

Notes University of Toronto’s David Lafrenière, lead author of a paper submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters about the discovery,” If we confirm that this object is indeed gravitationally tied to the star, it will be a major step forward.”

(Credit: Gemini Observatory)

Little Leo

Twinkle, twinkle little star
Are you hiding planets afar?

More and more often, the answer is turning out to be “yes.” The latest discovery: a world just five time larger than Earth circling around its mother star in the constellation Leo. If true, the planet would be the smallest yet found beyond our solar system. More importantly, researchers believe the planet to be of the terrestrial, or rocky body, variety.

A team of astronomers from the Spanish Research Council working with Dr Jean-Philippe Beaulieu, a visiting astrophysicist at University College London, made the discovery using a computer simulation that predicted the planet’s location based on small changes on an already discovered sibling planet.

The scientists say the newly discovered world, called GJ 436c, orbits its host star in 5.2 Earth days and completes a revolution in 4.2 Earth days.

“On Earth, a full day (sunset to sunset) coincides quite closely with the rotation period. On the new planet these two periods do not coincide, since the orbital translation period and the rotation period are very similar. For this reason, a full day on the new planet would take four planetary years, or roughly 22 Earth days,” notes a press release about the discovery.

The study is published in this week’s Astrophysical Journal.

Sheep in space

The announcement this week that scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have found organic molecules in the atmosphere of a planet outside the solar system reminded me of an interview I had a while back about how researchers might determine if life exists on other planets.

I asked if extraterrestrial scientists were looking at Earth, for example, would they know it was populated. Apparently, one of the give-aways would be the same chemical found in the atmosphere of planet HD 189733b -- methane. We can thank the sheep and cows for providing telltale signs of life on Earth.

It’s doubtful any alien livestock are busy processing dinner on HD 189733b, however. The planet is too close to its mother star to support life as we know it.